Posts Tagged ‘liliko’i’

Having a great day already! I picked a big bag full of lilikoi (passionfruit) off the ground after high winds and rain last night, brought them home, rinsed them off, and now I wait for them to turn yellow and shrivel a little bit, because that’s when they’re best. I think they’re my favorite fruit. They’re ugly and weird, but I love the sweet and sour taste. I hear they make great margaritas. Here’s what else we’re getting free from trees in Kaua’i.

Sprinkles in the air, we took a trip to Wailua Falls, from the opening segment of “Fantasy Island”. A twisty road brought us there, and some locals told me to look for (orange, bumpy) passion fruit here, but we found none. Too overwhelmed by the force of the falls! Much larger than they appear in pictures, you can feel their mist from far away.

After the falls we went to our favorite salt pond, and stopped at a local produce coop in Hanapepe, where I received a lesson in how to eat liliko’i (yellow passion fruit.) First you bite a hole in the fruit and look for a worm, because sometimes they get in there. Next, my teacher handed me the fruit she’d bitten and said, “now suck it out.” Being the good sport, I did. The slimy, seedy mouthful was delicately sweet and sour, so I bought some, three for a dollar.

Next stop was the Sunshine Market, today in Lihue. I found great fruits: rambutan, pomelo, pineapple and tomatoes. The pomelo is an ancestor to the grapefruit: large and similar in flavor, with a very thick rind. Rambutan are a bit more bizarre: round to oval with a cherry red skin with spiny tendrils all over them. To eat them you score the skin’s circumference with a knife and this translucent, pearly white globe pops out. It has a pit inside with a rough skin on it (a bit unpleasant on the tongue), but the fruit itself is lovely and delectable.

People worry about the cost of food in Hawaii, but tropical fruit and Asian staples are affordable and delicious. Be adventurous! Dinner tonight is Chinese fried rice, with the bounty of fruits for dessert, and of course, the 5th game of the World Series. Go Yankees!